The present invention relates to an artificial cranium and to a prosthetic head produced from said cranium, as well as to a process for producing said cranium and said head.
In the accident prevention field, at present ever-increasing efforts are being made to study the mechanical behaviour of the human body and particularly the bones in the case of an impact or shock. This not only serves to determine all the consequences due to an impact at a given point but also to study the effectiveness of certain protective measures. As the head is a very sensitive part of the body, particular attention is paid to it.
The invention has a very interesting application in the study of the effectiveness of helmets for motorcyclists and also motorists in the case of racing cars or other competitive vehicles, such as those used in gocarting and the like.
In the automobile industry, use is made of dummies with synthetic heads for simulating accidents. However, these heads are made from wood or metal and consequently do not have the same mechanical characteristics as a true head or a true human skull. Moreover, it is difficult to carry out experiments on real human heads because, following the death of the person in question, bones harden and do not have the same mechanical characteristics as a living bone.
There are at present artificial craniums used more particularly for pedagogic purposes. However, said craniums are made from flexible plastics and are generally in two parts, which are assembled along a plane using mortises and tenons. The joining plane is chosen so as to make it easy to construct the two parts of the cranium (cavities which are largely open to the outside and no undercuts). It is clear that although such craniums are satisfactory for the study of the anatomy, they do not make it possible to carry out mechanical tests for shock resistance, on the one hand because the materials chosen have characteristics which differ widely from those of true bones and on the other hand because the assembly plane of the two parts in no way corresponds to what occurs anatomically.
There are also prosthetic heads for the study of injuries caused by automobile accidents. However, such heads are constituted by a simple external envelope substantially reproducing the external appearance of a true human head within which are placed metal structures in honeycomb form. These means make it possible to determine at what points the most severe stresses occur or to establish shock probability cards or charts, but do not have the same biomechanical behaviour as a real human head.